A (rifle) barrel vise.

One of our machining students is a skilled target shooter and reloader who
wants to get into gunsmithing. An essential item, along with an action
wrench (which is the next project), for serious rifle action work and
rebarreling is a barrel vise to install and remove the barrels. While
these are commercially available, the good ones tend to be somewhat expensive,
while the less expensive units fit only one size/taper of barrel or tend to
damage the finish. The student opted to make his own barrel vise, not only
saving money for other gunsmithing tools but gaining valuable experience, while
incorporating the desired features of several commercial units. This
version will have a 2 inch diameter bushing hole. 2 inch diameter aluminum
bar stock is widely available, and can be easily fabricated to match any
barrel diameter and taper eliminating the possibility of marring the finish.

Using a short screw machine length drill to drill the first part of the bolt
hole. The shorter screw machine length drills have less tendency to walk
or wander than the regular jobber length drills. The students are
encouraged to use these where possible.

Because of the depth of the hole, a jobber length drill was required to
complete the hole.

Long stringy chips are a safety hazard and the students are exceptionally
careful
when drilling to clear the hole to limit their length and to keep the work area
clear.

Counter boring for a 1/2 X 13 SHCS using a 3/4 inch 3 flute end mill.
Not the correct size but what we had available. See the next picture for how we
cleaned the heads up to fit.

Using the milling machine as a lathe to clean the outside diameters of
the clamp bolts up with a carbide tool. No extensive metal removal, just
taken down to bright metal. A common Dobby pad was used to deburr the
edges and polish the heads to a high gloss.

last updated by GmcD on 19-Mar-11 19:30
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